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A Very Unique 33

If you’ve been paying attention to the Southport social media pages, you have probably seen the latest 33 FE to leave the shop, dubbed internally as the “tan boat” and the “cream boat”. This was a special project for us, and something we were excited about doing as soon as we heard it was a possibility.

The owner of this brand-new Southport previously owned another center console brand and really loved the comfortable cruising features and aesthetics the boat offered, but couldn’t stand the rough, jarring, and worst of all, wet ride the boat offered. After seeing the Southport 33 at a Fall boat show and then riding it on a raw early October Saturday morning, the soon-to-be future Southport owner was sold, and even remarked “on my old boat, I would have been soaked after that”.

The next few months involved a lot of back and forth, deciding between 33 LX or FE, colors, finishes, and other adaptations to the standard Southport package. In the end, the boat came together perfectly, and the foresight by the new owner was impeccable.

The massive aft cockpit of the 33 FE looks great in this color palette

The hull color drove the rest of the choices, so it needed to come first. The color is confusingly named “Pure White”, and in a vacuum, it looks like a standard white gelcoat. Once placed beside a “Snow White” hull though, the difference is clear. With the hull color set, we could work with all our other vendors to find matching options for the rest of the boat, all the way down to the most minor details, including seldom seen Starboard and acrylic panels hidden far inside the boat.

The Helm area is completed with FlexiTeak flooring for the helmsman and passenger.

As the build commenced we slowly amassed a shelf’s worth of tan colored cabinets, lids, cushions, hatches and other parts that would make their way onto the boat. No detail was overlooked in the color matching, from big obvious things like the powdercoating on the hardtop frame, to the plastic grates that sit in the bottoms of the fishboxes and bilge areas.

This FE has customized storage, complete with trash can, in the leaning post.

The most interesting and exciting part for the Southport team was the floor covering options. Many builders, a group which now includes Southport, are offering Sisal carpeting on deck to soften the feeling underfoot, and give a higher-end look to the boat. This is not the Astroturf carpeting we all grew up with. While it was a challenge, we were excited to have the opportunity to add this option to the 33 FE. The final product, especially in combination with the off-white color scheme, was a home run.

As of today, the boat is having its final commissioning, including electronics and bottom paint, and should hit the water in May, where it will certainly turn some heads.